The Futureheads is a funky and very “now”-sounding album that seems to
slide around the throwback ‘80s/garage rock sound that’s currently
popular and infuses its own sort of hip and irreverent spin on poppy,
bubbly rock. Personally, I like the fact that they have tracks titled
“Robot” and “Man Ray.” Anyway, the Sunderland, England foursome are
apparently very into the democratic process when it comes to the band
and it shows in the way they sort of sound like a lot of things (mostly
late ‘70s and early ‘80s pop) but manage to sound at least temporarily
unique due to their many influences and style changes.

Frontman Barry Hyde keeps his Northern England twang full frontal,
beginning with “Le Garage,” a funky dirge that complements its
uppitiness with some nice guitar licks. With Jaff on bass, Dave Hyde
(Barry’s little brother) on drums and Ross Millard on guitars, the
quartet also share the vocal duties, though Barry does most of the
fronting. Each song’s rippin’ tempo is transfixed by the boppity
choruses, each one of which will get stuck in your head only until the
next track’s chorus is sprung upon you. As Barry Hyde offers, regarding
the obviously frenetic way the band plays, “We wanted to make
startling, surprising, sensational music. Most bands…didn’t even look
like they were enjoying it [performing].”

“Danger of the Water” is a piece that has little accompaniment to its
Beatles/The Who harmonic vocals, almost sounding like an updated
version of the barbershop quartet, while “First Day” just keeps getting
faster and faster. Just to be clear, though the tempos are generally
quick and the pace frenetic, they are by no means just a loud bunch of
string twangers. “Decent Days and Nights” is a perfect example of this
heightened sense of pace, along with the feeling that they’re from the
early MTV generation, and the single “Hounds of Love” nicely
exemplifies both the overall vocal and musical talents. It’s no wonder
much of the band’s popularity can be traced largely to these two songs.
“Robot” sounds like a bit of an homage to Devo, another example of the
group’s variety of influences. (As an aside, my neighbor when I was a
kid in the early ‘80s had a go-cart that he named the Devomobile. You
just can’t get any cooler than that.) The frenetic nature of the music
is complimented by the fact that most of the tracks are short. The
entire album is only 36 minutes long, and at 15 tracks, that makes for
some quick songs. The short nature of the tracks and of the album as a
whole helps to fight the pervading sense that there is less here than
it would seem. One can hope that some of the simple though effective
arrangements The Futureheads currently employ will evolve into some
more sophisticated songwriting of equal pace and similar style.

Former Gang of Four guitarist Andy Gill and Paul Epworth shared the
producing duties and they were smart and bold enough to do most of the
recordings for this album live. While this can compromise certain
aspects of the sound, The Futureheads are so much a four-piece medley
group that it’s important for them to play together at the same time,
especially since all four of them sing. The album contains songs that
hearken back to the band’s inception in 2000 and it is easy to see how
and why these four gentlemen care only for their music and the joy it
brings them and their audiences. Hopefully they’ll stay that way and
not start caring about the success that has already begun to visit them.